Politico

Two veteran political pundits got in a heated exchange Sunday as to whether President Joe Biden should run again — and, by extension, whether America needs fresh faces in the presidential race.

“The country can do better than an 82-year-old and a 78-year-old and needs to do better when we face the kind of challenges we face,” said longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove during a panel discussion on “Fox News Sunday.”

Political analyst Juan Williams responded in defense of Biden: “Let me quote the great Joe Biden: Compare me not to the Almighty, but to the alternative.” Williams argued that as long as Trump is the GOP frontrunner, Democrats will unify behind Biden as the nominee no matter what they think of him now.

Trump, 76, is already running for the Republican nomination, and Biden, 80, is expected to launch his candidacy Tuesday. Either would be the oldest person elected president in American history, breaking the record set by Biden in 2020.

Recent polling suggests that many Americans are not happy with either candidate. NBC News, for instance, released a poll Sunday showing that 70 percent of all Americans (including 51 percent of Democrats) don’t want Biden to run again in 2024. The same poll showed that 60 percent of all Americans don’t want Trump to run. Those numbers are largely consistent with what other polls have indicated in recent months.

Rove said there was “deep concern” about Biden’s ability to serve another term in the White House, and said the president’s performance during a visit last week to Ireland was problematic. “Go to the videotape. It is painful,” Rove said.

In defense of Biden, Williams pointed to former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican who ran for his second term at age 73. “He won in a landslide,” Williams said. Rove scoffed at that comparison.

When cutting to a commercial break after some cross-talk between the two, host Shannon Bream quipped, “There will be arm wrestling on this side of the table. That’s pay-per-view though.”

For the record, Williams is 69 years old and Rove is 72.

The time may finally come this week for President Joe Biden.

Or, maybe it won’t.

Biden’s notorious dithering has again been put on vivid display around the exhaustive questions about the timing of his reelection announcement. But it’s not just the president who sees the pluses and minuses of launching a full campaign roughly 18 months out from the November presidential election. Inside the White House, and even among his tight-knit circle, there’s been disagreement over when to formally commence.

One camp argues, essentially, why push? Nobody of note in the party is going to challenge Biden and he can appear above the fray if he just keeps being … president. They point to the images of his daring voyage into Kyiv, Ukraine. More recently, Biden was greeted like a hero in his motherland of Ireland. Some around the president say little he does as a candidate over the next couple months is likely to top the priceless, even emotional, optics. Donors are getting restless — but really, when are they not?

“What matters is this: Biden is going to run and he’s going to win. The exact date he ‘officially’ announces is utterly meaningless,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.).

Amid all the breathlessness, several Democrats outside the White House told POLITICO they are fine with him waiting until late summer or even the fall. They point to the chaotic Republican primary and cable TV chyron-dominating legal morass swirling around former President Donald Trump as reasons for Biden to keep his powder dry. Some noted the awkwardness of his possible relaunch video Tuesday, the first day of a Manhattan trial over allegations Trump raped a woman decades ago. Which one, they ask facetiously, is the story that will get more eyeballs?

Meanwhile, other potential Republican candidates — like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence — may not make their own announcements for weeks or months yet. Biden’s schedule next week, which includes a state dinner for the president of South Korea and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, also doesn’t lend itself to an obvious run of political momentum. And a potentially messy fight over the debt ceiling this summer could further drag down Biden’s poll numbers.

Now, as he spends the weekend at Camp David, the political world is again waiting on whether the announcement indeed comes Tuesday, the four-year anniversary of his 2020 announcement. Few outside Washington are clamoring for it. Poll after poll shows Democrats’ mixed appetite for another run, even as a large majority of the party approves of the job he’s doing.

On a macro level, little will change if Biden puts out the video announcing his bid next week — and then begins bombarding supporters with digital overtures for contributions. Indeed, much of the impetus for doing so amounts to housekeeping.

Along with raising money, Biden’s aides will begin the process in earnest to build out a formal operation. There will be one-off events. He’ll continue to travel for fundraisers. His aides don’t anticipate he’ll mount any kind of sustained political campaign so early in the process.

What the launch could do is provide some in Biden world and the broader party comfort just to get the vacillation over with.

“It’s just good for the party to finally be definitive about it,” said Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh. “It just brings clarity to your mission. Now we know we’re running. Now we can hire a campaign manager. Now we can get the office in Wilmington. Now we can start to move. And I just think that will be very good for Biden and the party.”

Some in Biden’s inner circle have been amused by the frantic speculation about the date. Yes, Tuesday is the anniversary of his 2019 campaign launch, which turned out rather well. And, yes, Biden is a little superstitious. But Biden is also often tardy in making big decisions and few would be stunned if the timeline slipped again.

For months, those in Biden’s orbit and many other Democrats have begun to build a campaign apparatus — including a likely headquarters in the president’s beloved hometown of Wilmington, Del. — while waiting for the commander in chief to get to “yes.” Some longtime friends have privately wondered if he might not. They see his age, the toll the job takes on any president, and see Biden grow more easily tired and prone to verbal stumbles.

But most have always believed he would sign off. Biden has spent more of his life seeking the presidency than just about any politician in history. His record is strong, they argue. And the specter of Trump looms, as does the strongly held belief that Biden is the only Democrat who can beat him.

Those who favor jumping in now make two primary arguments. First, announcing a campaign would finally silence the questions — from reporters and Democrats alike — as to whether Biden will run, muzzling a storyline with the potential to become a distraction if it dragged on for many more months.

“You folks in the media have been following him and speculating, ‘Is he, isn’t he?’” Longabaugh said. “And that puts all of those stories to bed. Now he’s in, he’s announced, he’s filed his paperwork, he’s running. It’s my own personal view that a lot of those stories were just a distraction. And now those distractions are gone.”

But mostly, it is about money. Several senior White House aides have noted any month lost for fundraising can’t simply be made up at the end. Even if Biden is a fundraising juggernaut, delays in starting will lose him dollars at the end, they argue. And even if a full-on campaign doesn’t begin for months, the buck-raking can begin soon. And it will be useful.

“The more time you have, the less rushed you feel,” said Patrick Martin, an Obama administration alum and aide to former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). “They have hit the point where it makes sense to get the formal campaign started.”

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The Sudanese army said Saturday it was coordinating efforts to evacuate American, British, Chinese and French citizens and diplomats from Sudan on military aircraft, as the bloody fighting that has engulfed the vast African nation entered its second week.

The military said that its chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, had spoken to leaders of several countries who have requested safe evacuations of their citizens and diplomats from Sudan. The prospect has vexed officials as most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of the capital, Khartoum, has proven intensely dangerous.

Burhan “agreed to provide the necessary assistance to secure such evacuations for various countries,” the military said.

Questions have swirled over how the mass rescues of foreign citizens would unfold, with Sudan’s main international airport closed and millions of people sheltering indoors. As battles between the Sudanese army led by Burhan and a rival powerful paramilitary group rage in and around Khartoum, including in residential areas, foreign countries have struggled to repatriate their citizens — some of whom are running short on food and basic supplies while hunkered down.

The Pentagon said earlier this week it was moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel. But the White House said Friday it had no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of an estimated 16,000 American citizens trapped in Sudan.

Even as the warring sides said Friday they’d agreed to a cease-fire for the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, explosions and gunfire rang out across Khartoum on Saturday. Two cease-fire attempts earlier this week also rapidly collapsed.

“People need to realize that the war has been continuous since day one. It has not stopped for one moment,” said Atiya Abdalla Atiya, secretary of the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties. The clashes have killed over 400 people so far, according to the World Health Organization.

The international airport near the center of the capital has come under heavy shelling as the paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has tried to take control of the compound. In an apparent effort to oust the RSF fighters, the Sudanese army has pounded the airport with airstrikes, gutting at least one runway and leaving wrecked planes scattered on the tarmac. The full extent of damage at the airfield remains unclear.

Burhan said that some diplomats from Saudi Arabia had already been evacuated from Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport on the Red Sea, and airlifted back to the kingdom. He said that Jordan’s diplomats would soon be evacuated in the same way.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia and Jordan both announced that they had started arranging for the repatriation of their citizens stuck in Sudan. Officials did not elaborate on how the plans would unfold. Jordan said it was “taking into account the security conditions on the ground” and was coordinating its efforts with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The White House is planning to nominate Monica Bertagnolli to run the National Institutes of Health, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

The decision would end a lengthy vacancy atop the health research agency, and vault Bertagnolli, a Boston cancer surgeon, into a top role just months after being appointed as director of the government’s National Cancer Institute. She became the first woman to occupy the job when she took over the role in October.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported Bertagnolli’s expected nomination.

If confirmed by the Senate, Bertagnolli would take control of a sprawling agency charged with investigating a range of diseases and finding new treatments. The NIH has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, with a budget that now exceeds $45 billion.

But the role would also thrust her into the center of a prolonged fight over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. House Republicans have prioritized investigating the NIH’s funding of research projects, in search of evidence that some of its grants may have inadvertently triggered Covid’s spread.

The NIH has not had a permanent director since December 2021, when Francis Collins stepped down after more than a decade atop the agency. Lawrence Tabak, the NIH’s longtime principal deputy director, has since served as acting director.

The White House had struggled for months to settle on a nominee, hampered by difficulties attracting top talent from more lucrative private sector jobs and concerns among potential candidates that their time in the role may come to an end along with the president’s first term.

President Joe Biden had also pushed hard for the NIH nominee to be an oncologist, the people familiar with the matter said. Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot during the Obama administration, and maintains a deep interest in cancer research in part due to the death of his son, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.

Bertagnolli, who previously did stints at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had won internal praise during her short time at the NCI.

She also made headlines shortly after taking the job for disclosing her own early-stage breast cancer diagnosis following a routine mammogram. She wrote at the time that “it’s one thing to know about cancer as a physician, but it is another to experience it firsthand as a patient as well. To anyone with cancer today: I am truly in this together with you.”

If confirmed, Bertagnolli would be the second woman to head the NIH.

NEW YORK — Against a backdrop of drastic charts and flanked by senior members of his administration, Mayor Eric Adams made perhaps his most forceful case yet Wednesday for more money from the federal government to address the city’s costly migrant crisis.

The city is already out $817 million because of it, said Jacques Jiha, his budget director. And it’s staring down a $1.4 billion price tag for the fiscal year that ends June 30. There’s also a looming $2.9 billion for the next year, not to mention the impending lapse of Title 42, a restrictive Trump-era immigration policy.

Adams said it’s still unclear why the federal government — the White House in particular — hasn’t allocated more dollars to help the city respond to the crisis, which he insisted would help stave off cuts at the local level that are drumming up controversy around City Hall.

“The president and the White House have failed this city,” he said, adding that a less-than-punctual state budget is only adding to the stresses.

He indicated he wants the federal government to grant Temporary Protected Status to asylum seekers so they can receive work permits because the city is currently experiencing a “black market” of workers without them.

“A substantial number of them, I believe, are being exploited, are being mistreated,” he said.

It was quite the political split screen: a couple hundred feet away members of the Progressive Caucus chastised the mayor’s proposed budget cuts (which he has insisted be referred to as “efficiencies”). In the most recent round a few weeks ago, his administration asked most city agencies to cut their staffs for the upcoming fiscal year by 4 percent.

The caucus, which butts heads with the mayor routinely — even more so than the typically critical City Council — is calling for $4 billion in affordable housing funding and $350 million toward “right to counsel” services for those who cannot afford an attorney. They demanded more dollars to be earmarked to shore up mental health and education services, too.

“He is defunding everything we need to keep us safe,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés, who has defined his administration’s priorities largely through a public safety lens. The caucus lost more than a dozen of its members earlier this year amid an internal brawl over whether to defund the NYPD.

The City Council released its official response to the mayor’s budget a few weeks ago, claiming the city would make billions more this fiscal year and the next than it had originally projected.

Adams called those projections “false reporting” and said the inability of local officials to get on the same page has contributed to the federal government’s feet-dragging.

“Running your mouth is not running a city,” Adams said of his critics.

The mayor and the Council have an April 26 deadline for a deal, though uncertainty in Albany could muddy that timeline, too. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who also echoed Adams’ calls to expand temporary protected status, said a commitment in the state budget to pay a third of the costs promised by Gov. Kathy Hochul “has yet to materialize.”

Asked Wednesday about the state helping the city with the cost of the asylum seekers, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said it would be a priority in ongoing budget talks.

“I know that members of my conference are very, very interested in making sure that we are helpful in this process,” she told reporters. “It’s not something that we’re spending a lot of time talking about, but there is a consensus that we do have to be helpful.”

The “Tennessee Three,” the trio of state lawmakers punished for participating in gun protests, will visit the White House on Monday to meet with President Joe Biden.

The White House announced Wednesday that the president will meet with state Reps. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville and Justin Jones of Nashville and Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis. The three were disciplined for violating their Statehouse decorum rules when they took part in a protest earlier this month seeking tighter gun laws. It followed the shooting deaths of three 9-year-old children and three school officials at a Nashville elementary school.

Jones and Pearson, who are Black, were expelled, but have since been reinstated to their seats by their respective local councils. Johnson, who is white and participated in the same demonstration, was not expelled.

“Earlier this month, the president spoke to them by phone after they were subjugated to expulsion votes in the Tennessee Statehouse for peacefully protesting in support of stronger gun safety laws following the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. During that call, the president thanked them for their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for the democratic values,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

“And the three lawmakers thanked the president for his leadership on gun safety and for spotlighting the undemocratic and unprecedented attacks on them in a Tennessee Statehouse.”

She added: “The president looks forward to continuing that discussion when they all meet with him on Monday.”

The three lawmakers captured national attention in the wake of the March 27 Nashville mass shooting, as the nation watched Tennessee Republicans’ unprecedented use of political power to expel two of the Democrats. National Democrats have rallied around the events, and the White House has seized on the opportunity to do the same — repeatedly weighing in on the events.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Nashville almost two weeks ago, where she met privately with the three representatives and later spoke to a packed room full of students, less than 24 hours after Tennessee Republicans booted the two Black lawmakers from office.

The White House gates can’t stop all intruders from breaching the premises, apparently.

A toddler squeezed through the metal barricade Tuesday morning but was caught by Secret Service officers on the north lawn before he crawled too close to the executive mansion, a spokesperson confirmed in a statement to POLITICO.

“The Secret Service Uniformed Division today encountered a curious young visitor along the White House north fence line who briefly entered White House grounds,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said. “The White House security systems instantly triggered Secret Service officers and the toddler and parents were quickly reunited.”

In a photo taken by an Associated Press photographer, the boy can be seen being carried by two uniformed officers, suspended in the air amid a backdrop of the White House.

Though short-lived, the toddler’s escapade may be historic: It’s possibly the first successful breach of the White House barrier since the fence’s height was doubled to 13 feet four years ago due to several intrusions. The new fence did, however, come with gaps an inch wider, totaling 5.5 inches.

It also appears to be the first baby breach at the White House in eight years. In 2015, a 4-year-old made it into a secured area as well, causing security officers to draw their weapons on the north lawn. And the year before that, a toddler squeezed through the fence in front of the residence.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden on Monday called Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old who was shot in Kansas City, Mo., after ringing the wrong doorbell, the White House confirmed Monday night.

Yarl was shot twice Thursday night after he approached the wrong house while picking up his siblings, an incident that Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson described Monday as having “a racial component.”

On Monday, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, was charged with first-degree assault. Lester, who told police that he thought the person at his front door was trying to break into his house, was also charged with armed criminal action.

Yarl was released from the hospital Sunday and has since been recovering at home.

The White House said Biden “shared his hope for a swift recovery.”

Attorneys for Yarl’s family, Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, said Biden called Yarl and his family shortly before they learned of the charges being brought against Lester. The president “offered his prayers for Ralph’s health and for justice,” they said in a statement Monday evening.

“Gun violence against unarmed Black individuals must stop,” the lawyers said. “Our children should feel safe, not as though they are being hunted. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, we will continue to fight for Ralph while he works toward a full recovery.”

Vice President Kamala Harris voiced outrage over the shooting.

“Doug and I are praying for Ralph Yarl and his family as he fights for his life,” Harris wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Let’s be clear: No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell. Every child deserves to be safe. That’s the America we are fighting for.”

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

President Joe Biden opposes two GOP-led measures that would roll back D.C. policing reforms and ban transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams — and he would veto both measures if they reach his desk, the White House said on Monday.

The policing reform rollback would violate D.C.’s right to improve public safety and deprive its police force of resources needed for “effective, accountable community policing,” according to a new statement of administration policy.

A second statement blasted Republican efforts to limit transgender students’ participation in sports that match their gender identity, warning it would further stigmatize and discriminate against transgender children.

The bill “targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget wrote. “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams.”

The statement notes that local schools, coaches and athletic associations are already working on participation rules for transgender children. A national ban would disrupt that more nuanced process, it said.

The threats come ahead of House Republicans’ plan to bring the two proposals to the floor as early as this week in their latest bid to advance agenda items that force congressional Democrats into politically tough votes.

House Democrats had sought strongly worded veto threats from the administration, particularly when it came to the transgender sports bill, several Hill aides said.

Democrats are also trying to avoid a repeat of the confusion over Biden’s position on GOP-led bills that prompted many lawmakers to vote against an earlier policing reform rollback in February — only to see Biden decide to support the measure weeks later.

Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.